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By DEREK MOORE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Sonoma on Monday became one of the few cities in the nation to enact regulations on chain establishments, including a ban on
Sonoma Plaza (PD FILE, 2004)
large-scale restaurant chains, such as McDonald’s, from opening on the city’s historic plaza.
The City Council voted 3-2, the same as a June 4 vote on the issue, to enact the ordinance.
Mayor Joanne Sanders, who along with Councilman Tom Rouse does not support the new regulations, on Monday reiterated her belief that they will stymie economic growth.
She cited as one example a building on the plaza that once housed a creamery but that has sat vacant for years. She said a restaurant chain, such as P.F. Chang’s, might have been a good fit for that location.
“The doors have been closed to a pool of potential tenants,” she said. “I think we’re better off having some business than no business.”
The council’s consideration of an ordinance governing “formula” stores was sparked after Staples in April opened on West Napa Street in a 14,400-square-foot building that had been a Ford dealership.
An ad-hoc committee led by Councilman Steve Barbose spent weeks crafting proposed changes to the zoning ordinance. Other than design review, the city does not regulate chain stores.
The original proposal called for banning all formula businesses from the Sonoma Plaza and enacting new use-permit requirements elsewhere in the city.
That ultimately was scaled back to a ban on only formula restaurants on the plaza. The area where these businesses would be subject to use permit review also was shrunk.
Under the ordinance, restaurant chains with more than 250 outlets will be prohibited from opening on the plaza. Currently, the plaza is home to a Mary’s Pizza Shack, which has 19 outlets, and a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream parlor, which has 580, according to their websites.
The plaza also has a Chico’s clothing store, which has more than 600 outlets, and a Massage Envy, which has more than 700. But large-scale retailers will not be banned under the ordinance.
But all formula businesses seeking to open at the plaza or in the city’s historical district will have to get use permits. A formula business is defined as one with 10 or more outlets, excluding hotels, offices, financial institutions and other service businesses.
A formula business seeking to open in a space of 10,000 square feet or larger anywhere in the city also will be subject to use permit review. The council exempted four shopping centers from the new regulations: Marketplace Center, Plaza West Center, Sonoma Valley Center and Maxwell Village Center.
Williams-Sonoma, which has announced plans to open a store on Broadway where Chuck Williams founded the company in 1956, will be subject to the new use permit, which could add two to three months to the planning process.
Relatively few cities nationwide restrict chain stores. Regulations that do so are touted by some as a way to protect a community’s charms but viewed by others as an impediment to economic growth.
Calistoga subjects chain businesses to permit review and bans chain restaurants and hotels downtown. Carmel became the first city in the nation to enact such rules when the Monterey Peninsula city banned chain restaurants in the mid-1980s.
Sonoma’s ordinance will take effect in 30 days.
You can reach Staff Writer Derek Moore at 521-5336 or derek.moore@pressdemocrat.com.
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Sonoma Chain Store Issue Settled
The Sonoma City Council finally approved the chain store ordinance that has been under careful consideration for the last year. I want to commend the council majority for creating an open public process that brought together a broad spectrum of community views, resulting in a balanced decision that reflects the due deliberation that this complex topic merits. The role of local government is to serve the common good by setting the rules and guidelines that set the community standards, thereby reducing uncertainty and signaling to commercial interests the type of development that we, as a city, seek to incentivize.
The key features of this modest legislation are zoning the Plaza to discourage a proliferation of national chain restaurants, which are directed to open in existing designated shopping centers, and a requirement that any new commercial enterprise of over 10,000 square feet within those centers apply for a conditional use permit that will allow community input on any major development that could have significant impacts. This is a widely-adopted permitting process that is required in many cities in the state. This is a land-use best practices standard that is quite common, and should really not be controversial.
Contrary to the naïve and simplistic free market fundamentalist ideology that “the market” will magically arrive at the optimal outcome, historical and empirical experience has demonstrated repeatedly that healthy, functioning market systems require a consistent, rational set of community standards that maximize economic potential through zoning and permitting.
Opposition to this simple and necessary ordinance was rooted in this misguided ideology. The quasi-religious faith in self-regulating markets should have been thoroughly discredited by the economic debacle of the Great Recession, caused by reckless, unregulated financial speculation, poorly planned sprawl development, and degradation of job quality, leading to low wages and benefits, coupled with increasing economic insecurity as corporations sought to boost profits by replacing steady, well-paid jobs with part-time, temporary and contract work. It will take years to repair the damage caused by this systemic failure of this deeply flawed “free market” model. Unfortunately, this hard-line position has become a secular gospel for the national, state and local Chambers of Commerce, which has become a highly politicized organization that has thrown its considerable resources into bankrolling anti-regulatory, anti-labor conservative politicians all across the U.S.
Opponents claimed that the “business climate” would be harmed by placing zoning restrictions on business locations. This is a case of ideology trumping common sense. Business climate is determined by income demographics, quality infra-structure, good schools and public services, and a safe, livable community environment. We can take pride in the decision of the council to preserve the character of Sonoma as a world-class destination. Time will prove the council’s sound judgment.